11th Annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays, Yale School of Drama, 2016.

20 15– 16 s e aso n

May 6–14, 2016

Yale School of Drama James Bundy, Dean Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean Joan Channick, Associate Dean Jeanie O’Hare, Chair of Playwriting

Presents the

New Domestic Architecture

By Brendan Pelsue Directed by Luke Harlan

Some Bodies Travel

By JIréh Breon Holder and Tori Sampson Directed by Margot Bordelon

Amy and the Orphans

By Lindsey Ferrentino Directed by Leora Morris

box 63 is the 2016 carlotta festival Sponsor

Carlotta Monterey, the widow of Eugene O’Neill, chose Yale University Press as the publisher of A Long Day’s Journey into Night. It is written on the copyright page of the first paperback edition that the proceeds from the publication of one of America’s greatest plays are to go to playwriting at Yale University.

Thank you, Carlotta.

FesTival Schedule MAY 6 8PM New Domestic Architecture

MAY 7 8PM Some Bodies Travel

MAY 8 8PM Amy and the Orphans

MAY 10 8PM New Domestic Architecture

MAY 11 2PM Some Bodies Travel 8PM Amy and the Orphans

MAY 12 2PM New Domestic Architecture 8PM Some Bodies Travel

MAY 13 2PM Amy and the Orphans 8PM New Domestic Architecture

MAY 14 2PM Some Bodies Travel 8PM Amy and the Orphans

Carlotta Monterey photo by Marcia Stein, 1922. courtesy of Condé Nast Archive/Corbis.

Welcome!

Welcome to Yale school of Drama to celebrate the 11th Annual Carlotta Festival.

Our graduating playwrights, Lindsey Ferrentino, JirÊh Breon Holder, and Brendan Pelsue, have spent three years writing and producing plays in the fully immersive conservatory training that the School of Drama offers. They are joined in this year’s Festival by second-year playwright Tori Sampson, who is the co-writer and lyricist of Some Bodies Travel.

Each of these writers has worked with innovative sound and lighting designers, field-leading projection designers, award-winning costume and set designers, consummate stage managers, visionary directors; collaborated with visual artists on campus; written songs with composers from the Yale School of Music; and had their minds repeatedly blown by dramaturgical and producing conversations.

They have made experimental work at Yale Cabaret, run electrics crew, worked front-of-house, and exerted themselves at 2AM striking sets. In short, they have been thrown in the deep-end of everything that this theatre culture of ours has to offer.

Already these writers are making great strides in our industry with recent and planned professional productions on the calendar. Now it is time for them to step out and take their place in an industry that both anticipates and salutes their talent. The Carlotta Festival is a celebration of that coming of age.

We are very pleased that you can be here in New Haven as the audience with the keenest eye for new talent and the warmest welcome to these new adventurers.

Yours,

Jeanie O’Hare Chair, Playwriting Department

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New Domestic Architecture new Domestic Architecture

By Brendan Pelsue Directed by Luke Harlan CREATIVE TEAM

Scenic Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer Projection Designer Production Dramaturg Stage Manager

CLAIRE DeLISO SOPHIA CHOI ELIZABETH GREEN FAN ZHANG MICHAEL COMMENDATORE DAVID BRUIN BEN PFISTER

CAST Young Man Ursule Claire Flo Claude Connor

BEN ANDERSON MARIÉ BOTHA JULIANA CANFIELD PATRICIA FA’ASUA DYLAN FREDERICK PATRICK MADDEN

Setting Madeira, New York. Far upstate.

New Domestic Architecture is performed without an intermission.

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“The Thoughtful Making of Space” During the early Middle Ages, many monastic orders followed The Rule of Saint Benedict. This 73-chapter volume detailing how to be a monk and encompassing topics from salvation to meal times was written by the 6th-century founder of more than a dozen monasteries. Sex, however, is not discussed. Ecclesiastical law strictly prohibited clergy from any sexual activity and so, ipso facto, no coitus in the cloisters.

As an alternative to furtive fornication, some mystics bypassed the corporeal altogether and achieved erotic experiences with the divine. In her “Seventh Vision,” Hadewijch of Antwerp describes in some of the most concupiscent prose of the 13th century how a vision of God “externally completely satisfied me to the utmost satiation.”

Spirituality and sexuality have always been uneasy bedfellows. In St. Benedict’s teachings, these two realms occupy discrete spaces. For Hadewijch, they share the same space, so that the boundaries between one and the other collapse.

How do we make room for spirituality and sexuality? Where does one end and the other begin? These are some of the questions that buttress Brendan Pelsue’s play, which begins with two married men who feel an erotic charge while designing a neo-Benedictine monastic retreat center.

new Domestic Architecture

And yet, people did (and, I imagine, still do) have sex in abbeys and convents. Recent scholarship suggests that even in the first several centuries of Western monasticism, monks and nuns engaged in a wide range of sexual behaviors.

Louis Kahn said, “Architecture is the thoughtful making of space,” suggesting that questions about beams, braces, and balusters are not so far removed from inquires into psychology, sex, and spirituality. In the spirit of Kahn’s definition, New Domestic Architecture explores the ways in which the art of building physical spaces reflects the ever-evolving construction of the self.

“Which is all a way of saying the play is about love,” playwright Brendan Pelsue has said. “And building a life. And failing to build a life. And taking the measure of what’s in you—which means living in that volatile node where the biggest things meet the smallest ones, and recognizing the inner architecture you build and the inner architecture you can’t escape.”

—David Bruin, production dramaturg 5

About the Playwright Brendan Pelsue is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Parking Lot, Riverbank: a Noh Play for Northerly Americans, and Don Juan (translator and adapter). Other credits include: Wellesley Girl (Humana Festival of New American Plays); Hagoromo (Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival); Lost Weekend (Actors Theatre of Louisville A/I Company); Read to Me (Bay Area Playwrights Festival); and Visitors (CorkScrew Theater Company). He received his BA from Brown University, where he received the Weston Award for playwriting.

new Domestic Architecture

Cast BEN ANDERSON (YOUNG MAN) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Our Lady of 121st Street. He is a member of the critically acclaimed The Road Theatre and Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles. Ben has worked with The New Harmony Project with playwrights such as Lee Blessing, John Pielmeier, and MJ Kaufman. He holds a BFA in theatre performance from the University of Evansville.

MARIÉ BOTHA (URSULE) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Originally from South Africa, she had two recurring roles on the television drama Erfsondes. Other credits include Slouch (Yale Cabaret) and Cate in Sarah Kane’s Blasted (Duo Theater). She holds a BFA in acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and studied at The Meisner Studio.

JULIANA CANFIELD (CLAIRE) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she has been seen in Women Beware Women, Best Lesbian Erotica 1995, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Deer and the Lovers. Her other credits include Cymbeline (understudy, Yale Repertory Theatre); Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, Once Five Years Pass (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Roberto Zucco, Leonce and Lena, Episode #121: Catfight (Yale Cabaret); and Fortuna Fantasia (New York International Fringe Festival).

Juliana holds a BA in English from Yale College.

PATRICIA FA’ASUA (FLO) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Originally from California, she played Helena in Shakespeare Orange County’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Patricia studied acting at MiraCosta College and the Gately/Poole Acting Conservatory.

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DYLAN FREDERICK (CLAUDE) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has been seen in Women Beware Women, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Deer and the Lovers. Other credits include Episode #121: Catfight and Roberto Zucco at Yale Cabaret. This summer his play, Boy Gets Violent, will premiere at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest. Dylan holds a BFA in theatre performance from the University of Evansville.

PATRICK MADDEN (CONNOR) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. His credits include And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens (Yale Cabaret). He has trained and performed at Shakespeare & Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Brown University, where he received a BA in English.

DAVID BRUIN (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Bird Fire Fly. Other credits include The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Yale Repertory Theatre); Derivatives (Yale Cabaret); Handbook for an American Revolutionary (Gym at Judson); and The Imaginary Life of Millo St. Jean (Snapdragon). He is a Co-Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret, where he has directed We Are All Here, Quartet, and The Crazy Shepherds of Rebellion. Prior to Yale, he served as the Co-Founding Producing Artistic Director of Snapdragon and the Campaign Associate at Signature Theatre in New York City. His writing has appeared in HowlRound and Theater magazine, where he was a 2014–15 managing editor.

He is a winner of the John W. Gassner Memorial Prize from Yale School of Drama. David holds a BA in philosophy and theatre arts from Boston College.

new Domestic Architecture

Creative Team

CLAIRE DeLISO (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Women Beware Women.

Other credits include The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Boris Yeltsin, Shiny Objects (Yale Cabaret); Midsummer, The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Doll People, Private Lives, Some Mother’s Son, Hedda Gabler (Smith College); Red, God of Carnage, Painting Churches, and Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (New Century Theatre). Claire’s film and television work includes Spooners (short), The Stand-ins (web series), Adult Beginners (assistant), and CBS’s third season of Unforgettable (assistant).

Claire is the production and costume designer for BlueMoose Productions,

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Creative Team

new Domestic Architecture

which released BadPuss: A Popumentary. She has collaborated with companies including New Brooklyn Theatre, 52nd Street Project, Infinite Theatre and Paint Box Theatre. Claire was born and raised in a small town in the south of France, and received her BA from Smith College.

SOPHIA CHOI (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Her previous design credits include Pride and Prejudice (Theatre VCU) and Oddstruck (short film). Sophia has been a part of various projects as a costume technician, including Amazing Grace (Broadway), Turn (AMC), and Mercy Street (PBS), and has also worked with the Heritage Theatre Festival and Virginia Opera. She holds a BFA in theatre design from Virginia Commonwealth University, and earned first place at the SETC Costume Design Competitions in 2014 and 2015.

MICHAEL COMMENDATORE (PROJECTION DESIGNER) is a secondyear MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Oresteia and The Winter’s Tale. Other credits include I’m with you in Rockland (Yale Cabaret), War (Yale Rep, Assistant Projection Designer), Macbeth (Gamm Theatre, production design), and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Wilbury Group). He has designed installations Hearing Rothko (Yale Art Gallery) and A Journey Through Time and Space (Beinecke Library). Michael has a BA in film media and a BFA in theatre with a concentration in directing.

ELIZABETH GREEN (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include The Oresteia and The Winter’s Tale. Other credits include The Secretaries (Yale Cabaret) and Sister Sandman Please (Yale Cabaret). Elizabeth has a BA in stage management from Western Michigan University.

LUKE HARLAN (DIRECTOR) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has directed The Skin of Our Teeth, The Winter’s Tale, and This Flat Earth. At Yale Cabaret, he directed The Brothers Size and Dutch Masters. He also served as Co-Artistic Director of Yale Summer Cabaret’s 40th Anniversary Season and directed Will Eno’s Middletown and Erin Courtney’s A Map of Virtue. Luke has developed new plays at The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Tectonic Theater Project, The New Group, New Dramatists, and The Lark. He is the founding Artistic Director of Engine Company No. 11, a recipient of the SDC National Directing Award, directing fellow at the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference, and member of the T.S. Eliot US/UK Exchange. Credits include the world premieres of Honky

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(Urban Stages, New York Times Critic’s Pick); home/sick (The Assembly, writer/performer, New York Times Critic’s Pick); iRove (Bushwick Starr); Shift (Old Vic Theatre, UK); Sousepaw: A Baseball Story (national tour); and Insatiable Hunger, a new musical (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater). Luke will be assisting Dmitry Krymov on the world premiere of The Square Root of Three Sisters, created and performed by the Dmitry Krymov Lab and Yale School of Drama, which will be presented in June at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. lukeharlan.net

FAN ZHANG (SOUND DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she designed the sound and composed the music for Fucking A, and assisted on The Troublesome Reign of King John, The Children, and Women Beware Women. She also assisted on War (Yale Rep).

Her other credits include The Commencement of William Tan and Solo Bach (Yale Cabaret). She has a BA in film sound design from Beijing Film Academy.

new Domestic Architecture

BEN PFISTER (STAGE MANAGER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Riverbank: A Noh Play for Northerly Americans, Don Juan, Coriolanus, and Fucking A. He was the assistant stage manager for peerless at Yale Rep. Ben has a BA in theatre and dance from The College of Wooster.

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Some Bodies Travel

By JirÉh Breon Holder and Tori Sampson Directed by Margot Bordelon CREATIVE TEAM Scenic Designer Costume Designer

KATIE TOUART

Lighting Designer

CAROLINA ORTIZ HERRERA

Music and Sound Design

some bodies travel

JOO KIM

Projection Designer Production Dramaturg Stage Manager

Ian Scot MICHAEL COMMENDATORE LYNDA A. H. PAUL PAULA R. CLARKSON

Lyrics by Tori Sampson Additional music by Lynda A.H. Paul

CAST Boulder, Boulder, Boulder

MIA ANTOINETTE

Gullah Jack, Sally, Grunt

LAUREN E. BANKS

Shadrach, Miss Howard, Mrs. Rii Denmark Vesey, Tony, First Mate Beboboop Beck, Aaron, Mr. Rii Gone‘Now, T.T., Captain Bababoya

COURTNEY JAMISON SEAN BOYCE JOHNSON JAMES UDOM CURTIS WILLIAMS

SETTING PAST: Slave Quarters PRESENT: An Eighth-Grade Classroom FUTURE: The Black Odyssey Some Bodies Travel is performed without an intermission.

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“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

—Maya Angelou

Founded in 1816, Emmanuel AME is the oldest Black church in the south. A site of historical resistance to slavery and a gathering place for civil rights activists, it has also been a target for racist violence from the nineteenth century through the shooting on June 7, 2015, which killed nine members of the congregation.

some bodies travel

Emmanuel AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church in Charleston, South Carolina

Denmark Vesey (ca. 1767–1822) Born a slave called Telemaque, Denmark Vesey changed his name after winning a lottery allowing him to buy his freedom. He became a religious leader in the AME congregation, as well as a political activist and organizer. Vesey was executed in 1822 for his alleged role in planning a (thwarted) slave insurrection in Charleston.

—Compiled by Lynda A.H. Paul, production dramaturg AME church photo by Stephen B. Morton/Associate Press.

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About the Playwrights Jiréh Breon Holder is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Rules. Other credits include 50:13, The Untitled Project (Yale Cabaret); and God Will Know the Difference (Fire This Time Festival). Jiréh has a BA in drama from Morehouse College and is a cofounder of Pyramid Theatre Company in Des Moines, Iowa. His play Too Heavy for Your Pocket won the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition and will premiere at the Alliance Theatre in the 2016–17 season.

JirehBreonHolder.com

some bodies travel

Tori Sampson is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include This Land Was Made. Tori has a BS in sociology from Ball State University and is the recipient of Berkeley Repertory’s 2016 Ground Floor summer residency. Her play If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka will appear on the Main Stage at the 2016 Great Plains Theatre Conference.

Cast MIA ANTOINETTE (Boulder, Boulder, Boulder) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Our Lady of 121st Street. She holds a BFA in acting from Southern Methodist University, where she appeared in The Women, For Colored Girls…, and The Skriker, among others. She has also performed with Soul Rep Theatre and the Dallas Theater Center.

LAUREN E. BANKS (GULLAH Jack, Sally, Grunt) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Macbeth, This Land Was Made, Fucking A, and Clybourne Park. Other credits include Harriet Tells It Like It Is (Capital Rep); Edgar and Annabel (Studio Theatre); and The Container (Center Stage). Lauren holds a BFA in acting from Howard University, and trained in Balinese Taksu with Aole Miller and Wayan Dibia.

COURTNEY JAMISON (Shadrach, Miss HOWARD, Mrs. Rii) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. She has worked regionally in The Color Purple (Virginia Repertory Theatre). Courtney holds a BA in musical theatre from James Madison University, where she appeared in How I Learned to Drive, Spring Awakening, Trojan Women, and All Shook Up among others. CourtneyJamison.com

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SEAN BOYCE JOHNSON (DENMARK VESEY, Tony, First Mate Beboboop) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. He holds a BA in speech communications from SUNY Potsdam. He has appeared in Topdog/Underdog (Brainerd Black Box), Gym Shorts (777 Theatre), Standing on Ceremony (Pendragon Company and Tectonic Theater Company), and Chains (The Players Theatre), among others.

CURTIS WILLIAMS (Gone’Now, T.T., Captain Bababoya) is a firstyear MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. He holds a BA in acting from Santa Fe University of Art and Design, where he performed in Den of Thieves, Our Lady of 121st Street, Confessional, and Middletown.

Creative Team MARGOT BORDELON (DIRECTOR) is a New York-based freelance director

some bodies travel

JAMES UDOM (Beck, Aaron, Mr. Rii) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has been seen in Our Lady of 121st Street.

His credits include Tamburlaine (Theatre for a New Audience); Macbeth (The Public); The Winter’s Tale (Pearl Theatre Company); Julius Caesar (Shakespeare & Company); Of Mice and Men, King Lear (Hubbard Hall); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The Odyssey (We Players), among others.

He has trained with Shakespeare & Company, Steppenwolf, and Dell’Arte International Ensemble, and received the National Irene Ryan Scholarship Award for Best Actor in 2012.

who specializes in new work. Recent projects include Jiehae Park’s peerless at Yale Repertory Theatre, Anna Ziegler’s A Delicate Ship for The Playwrights Realm, and Joshua Conkel’s Okay, Bye for Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

In New York, she’s directed for New York Theatre Workshop, Cherry Lane, Clubbed Thumb, Ars Nova, Juilliard, Target Margin, The Bushwick Starr, Theater Masters, and Stella Adler Institute, among others. Margot moved east after spending six years in Chicago working as a director, writer, and performer. She is a founding member of Theatre Seven of Chicago and spent four seasons working at Lookingglass Theatre, where she served as Literary Manager and Company Dramaturg. She received her BFA in theatre from Cornish College of the Arts and her MFA from Yale School of Drama, where she directed Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman, Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, and This. by Mary Laws. margotbordelon.com

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Creative Team PAULA R. CLARKSON (STAGE MANAGER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include The Skin of Our Teeth, The Children, and The Troublesome Reign of King John. Selected credits include Ship Show (Yale Institute for Music Theatre); The Moors (assistant stage manager, Yale Rep); Chinglish (assistant stage manager, Syracuse Stage); and All in the Timing (production assistant, Primary Stages).

She holds a BA in drama from Ithaca College.

MICHAEL COMMENDATORE (PROJECTION DESIGNER) Please see page 8 for his bio.

some bodies travel

CAROLINA ORTIZ HERRERA (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she designed Women Beware Women, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Troublesome Reign of King John.

Other credits include The Untitled Project, Don’t Be Too Surprised, Trouble in Tahiti (Yale Cabaret); The Recommendation (IAMA Theatre Company, 2014 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play); The Marriage of Bette and Boo, A Raisin in the Sun (University of La Verne); Esther’s Moustache (Studio Stage); The Onion Creek (Son of Semele); Hit, Wild in Wichita, Melancholia, Habitat (the Latino Theatre Company); as well as lighting, projections, and scenery for Datugan Dance Theatre. Her directing projects include Strangers in Disguise and The Women of Juarez (University of La Verne). Carolina was born and raised in Mexico City and received a BA in theatre from the School of Theatre, Film and Television at UCLA.

JOO KIM (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Fucking A. Joo has a BA in fine arts from Hongik University in South Korea. joosetdesign.com

LYNDA A. H. PAUL (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. She recently served as production dramaturg for Cymbeline and assistant director for The Moors, both at Yale Repertory Theatre. A multi-disciplinary theatre practitioner, Lynda has previously served as an opera and new play dramaturg and is currently a managing editor of Theater magazine. She has performed as an actor, vocalist, bassoonist, and saxophonist at Yale Cabaret, where she also recently directed a production of the Bernstein opera Trouble in Tahiti. Her writing has appeared most recently in Theater Development Fund’s Stages magazine.

Lynda holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, the University of Rochester, the University of Chicago, and Yale University, where she received distinction on her PhD in music. After completing her doctorate, Lynda taught interdisciplinary courses in several humanities departments at Yale.

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Ian Scot (MUSIC and Sound Design) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include compositions and sound design for The Merchant of Venice and This Land Was Made. Additional selected credits include Dutch Masters, Roberto Zucco, Moon Song, 50:13 (Yale Cabaret); Associate Sound Designer of The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Yale Rep); as well as installations, compositions, and performances at Boston Conservatory, Texas A&M University, A+D Gallery Chicago, and Prop Thtr, to name a few. When Ian isn’t making music or sound he is teaching theatre to high school students, mixing musicals at Berkshire Theatre Group, or throwing tennis balls at the park for his dog, Wade.

some bodies travel

KATIE TOUART (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Fucking A. A designer from Washington, D.C., with over 16 years of professional experience, her recent credits include Rumpelstiltskin, Peter Pan and Wendy (2014 Helen Hayes nomination), Aladdin’s Luck (2012 Helen Hayes nomination) at Imagination Stage; Five Little Monkeys, Winnie The Pooh (2014 Helen Hayes nomination), Just a Dream—The Green Play, and Pinkalicious at Adventure Theatre MTC. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art. touartist.com

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Amy and the Orphans

By Lindsey Ferrentino Directed by Leora Morris

CREATIVE TEAM

Amy and the Orphans

Scenic Designer

FUFAN ZHANG

Costume Designer

SARAH WOODHAM

Lighting Designer

ELIZABETH GREEN

Sound Designer and Original Music Projection Designer Production Dramaturg Stage Manager

SINAN REFIK ZAFAR MICHAEL COMMENDATORE CATHERINE MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ VICTORIA WHOOPER

CAST Bobby Amy Maggie

SEBASTIAN ARBOLEDA Jamie Brewer BAIZE BUZAN

Jacob

STEVEN LEE JOHNSON

Sarah

STEPHANIE MACHADO

Kathy

ELIZABETH STAHLMANN

There will be one fifteen-minute intermission.

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“Handling” the Truth/Facing Ourselves

Amy and the Orphans

Nothing makes us reckon who we are or where we come from quite like burying a close relative. Truths arise from six feet under and make us question the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. But what about those truths that don’t require unearthing—those that exist in our blind spots or even stand right in front of us? In Amy and the Orphans, two generations face such a truth in the person of Amy—the strong-willed, movie-quoting, fast food-loving family member who happens to have Down syndrome. In the wake of their father’s death, siblings Maggie and Jake become so wrapped up in handling their sister Amy and envisioning what would be best that they fail to see or hear her. Of these adult siblings, Amy alone can see the big picture and who she is within it.

For this production of Amy and the Orphans, our cast and creative team have worked to disrupt the pattern of judging things (and people) after only a cursory glance. We have asked the hard questions, experienced growing pains, and shared laughs along the way. Amy and the Orphans continually challenges us—and now, you—to check our blind spots, listen as others speak their truths, and then reconsider how to move forward, together.

—CATHERINE MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ, production dramaturg

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About the Playwright

Amy and the Orphans

Lindsey Ferrentino is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. This past fall, Lindsey’s play Ugly Lies the Bone was a New York Times Critic’s Pick after a sold-out, extended off-Broadway run at Roundabout Theatre Company. It will next be produced by the National Theatre of London in the Lyttelton. Lindsey is a recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Citation of Excellence, the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, Outer Critics Circle nominee for the John Gassner Award, the only two-time finalist for the Kendeda Prize, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and is on the Kilroys list. She has upcoming productions at Alliance Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, and Lake Dillon Theatre. Lindsey’s other plays include Kokomo, This Flat Earth, Magic Man, Moonlight on the Bayou, and Paradise Bar and Grill.

Her work has been developed at The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Atlantic Theater Company, MCC, Rattlestick, and the Kennedy Center, among others. Lindsey is currently working on commissions for Roundabout Theatre Company, The Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, and The National Theatre of London, as well as an original television pilot for producers Big Beach Films/TV. BFA: NYU; MFA: Hunter College. lindseyferrentino.com

Cast SEBASTIAN ARBOLEDA (BOBBY) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has been seen in The Oresteia and Preston Montfort—An American Tragedy. Other credits include Leonce and Lena, Episode #121: Catfight (Yale Cabaret); Romeo and Juliet, Fool for Love, Lobster Alice (California State University, Long Beach Players); and Lemon Boots (Hollywood Fringe). Sebastian holds a degree in performance and organizational communication from California State University, Long Beach.

JAMIE BREWER (AMY) is a guest artist at Yale School of Drama for this production. She lives in the Los Angeles area and is best known for her recurring roles over three seasons of American Horror Story. In Murder House she played sweet Adelaide, the daughter of Constance (Jessica Lange); in Coven, as Nan, a “witch in training,” who called out Madame Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates); and she appeared in Freak Show as Marjorie, Chester’s (Neil Patrick Harris) nasty little ventriloquist doll. In 2015, Jamie was the first woman with Down syndrome to walk in New York’s Fashion Week in Carrie Hammer’s collection “Role Models Not Runway Models.” Jamie has a strong voice as an advocate for the community with disabilities and has served on the Governmental Affairs Committee for the state of Texas. Jamie has received her Musical Theatre Certificate, completed her first year of Meisner’s studies, and is working toward her Bachelors of Fine Arts.

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BAIZE BUZAN (MAGGIE) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she has been seen in Macbeth, Women Beware Women, Best Lesbian Erotica 1995, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Preston Montfort—An American Tragedy. Other credits include Sister Sandman Please, The Commencement of William Tan, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Yale Cabaret); Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens Theater); Fat Pig (Steppenwolf Garage); Rich and Famous (Jackalope Theatre); and multiple workshops at Writers Theatre. She can also be seen in the upcoming feature film Our Father. Baize is a graduate of Vassar College and The School at Steppenwolf.

STEVEN LEE JOHNSON (JACOB) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale

STEPHANIE MACHADO (SARAH) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. She recently performed in Cloud Tectonics at Yale Cabaret. She holds a BFA in acting from Southern Methodist University, where she appeared in The Women, Black Snow, and Middletown, among others. She is a graduate of New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. stephaniemmachado.com

Amy and the Orphans

School of Drama. He has appeared in Clybourne Park (Guthrie Theater); Red (Park Square Theatre); and in several Shakespeare plays with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Other regional credits include Theater Latté Da, Door Shakespeare, and Hope Summer Repertory Theatre. Television: Chicago Fire (NBC) and Masterclass (HBO). Steven is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and holds a BFA from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program.

ELIZABETH STAHLMANN (KATHY) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she was seen in The Merchant of Venice, The Oresteia, and Clybourne Park. Her other credits include Knives in Hens (Yale Cabaret); Midsummer, love holds a lamp in this little room, Orlando (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Real Thing, A Christmas Carol (Guthrie Theater); As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet (The Acting Company national tour and Off-Broadway); Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Tennessee Williams Festival); School for Wives, Insatiable Hunger (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater); God of Vengeance (Marvell Rep); and at Joe’s Pub with Billy Hough.

MICHAEL COMMENDATORE (PROJECTION DESIGNER) Please see page 8 for his bio.

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Creative Team ELIZABETH GREEN (LIGHTING DESIGNER) Please see page 8 for her

Amy and the Orphans

bio.

LEORA MORRIS (DIRECTOR) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Howard Barker’s Women Beware Women, Shakespeare’s The Troublesome Reign of King John, and Brendan Pelsue’s Riverbank: A Noh Play for Northerly Americans. Her other credits include Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and Yaël Farber’s He Left Quietly, based on the life experiences of Duma Kumalo (Yale Cabaret); love holds a lamp in this little room (Yale Summer Cabaret); and White Oleander (Yale Drama Coalition). In Toronto, Leora directed He Left Quietly (2014 SummerWorks Best Production); Horse, Engaged, The Mistress Project, and Grannie Didn’t Go to Florida, all new works with her company Theatre Hetaerae. For her early career contributions to the Canadian theatre landscape and collaborations with emerging playwrights, Leora was honored with the 2012 Ken MacDougall Award for Emerging Directors. She served as Associate Dramaturg for the 2013 Banff Playwrights Colony and Apprentice in New Play Development at Tarragon Theatre. She is a graduate of McGill University and George Brown Theatre School (acting), and currently serves as co-artistic director of Yale Cabaret’s 48th season. Leora is excited to be the 2016–17 Phil Kent Directing Fellow at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

SINAN REFIK ZAFAR (SOUND DESIGN AND ORIGINAL MUSIC) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Master and Margarita, Coriolanus, and This Flat Earth. Other recent credits include peerless (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Midsummer (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Zero Scenario, The Hotel Nepenthe, and A New Saint for a New World (Yale Cabaret). He is a Bay Area native who lived in the Los Angeles area for several years. His previous work includes O, Fallen One (Curly Cue & Co); Blood Knot (Lounge Theatre); Woyzeck (The Illyrian Players); Julius Caesar (Griot Theatre of the West Valley); The Misanthrope directed by Keith Fowler; Jane Eyre directed by Annie Loui; How I Learned to Drive (Nixon Theatre); and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (The Little Theatre). Sinan graduated with a BA in drama with honors in sound design from the University of California, Irvine. SinanZafar.com

CATHERINE MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she has founded El Colectivo, Yale’s pan-Latinx theatre affinity organization. Recent credits include And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens and Salt Pepper Ketchup at Yale Cabaret. Before moving to New Haven, she was the Dramaturgy and Artistic Fellow at Baltimore CenterStage and a visiting instructor of 20

dramaturgy in the MFA playwriting program at Catholic University. An advocate for parity and inclusion, she co-organized #WikiTurgy, a national Edit-A-Thon to diversify Wikipedia’s theatre coverage, and co-hosted the Dramaturgy Open Office Hours Project. She currently serves as a core stakeholder for the Lark’s México/United States Playwright Exchange and on the National Steering Committee for the Latina/o Theatre Commons.

Catherine proudly calls New Orleans and Nicaragua home. Past credits: El Círculo Teatral (México), Borderlands, Steppenwolf, The NOLA Project, and Northwestern University (Performance Studies). Awards: 2014 Dramaturg Driven Grant; Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA); 2014 Leadership Institute Fellow, National Association of Latina/o Arts and Cultures; 2013 Dramaturgy Debut Panelist, Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Carnegie Mellon: BFA, dramaturgy; BA, Latina/o studies.

at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Deer and the Lovers, Measure for Measure, Paradise Lost, and Altogether Reckless. At Yale Repertory Theatre she was the stage manager for peerless as well as assistant stage manager for War. She also stage managed The Untitled Project (Yale Cabaret); served as the stage management intern at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; and the Production Stage Manager at Triton College.

Victoria holds a bachelor’s degree in theatre arts from Dominican University, where she was the 2011 recipient of the Sister Gregory Duffy award of excellence and dedication in theatre.

SARAH WOODHAM (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a first-year MFA candidate

Amy and the Orphans

VICTORIA WHOOPER (STAGE MANAGER) is a third-year MFA candidate

at Yale School of Drama. She holds a BFA in fashion and design from The University of Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean Academy of Fashion and Design), where she designed An Echo in the Bone for The Trinidad Theatre Workshop. She is a past winner of the Meiling Designer Critique Award, a freelance storyboard artist, graphic designer, and co-director of her own fashion print house, A Memory Emerging New (A.M.E.N.) Print House.

FUFAN ZHANG (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include The Oresteia. Other credits include Ya Shan (Golden Hedgehog University Drama Festival, 2013); production design for Yamakawa, a series of photographs by Youjia Qu; The Terrorists (Best Foreign Short Film Award, Seoul International Youth Film Festival, 2011); Show Time (Best Film, 48 Hour Film Project, 2014); and the short film How to Kill Juan-Juan. Fufan has a BA in stage, film, and television design from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing.

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Festival Staff artistic Anne Erbe, Festival Producer Erin Fleming, Krista Smith, Assistant Lighting Designers Johnny Moreno, Assistant Projection Designer

PRODUCTION Rae Powell, Associate Production Manager Avery Trunko, Production Stage Manager Ian Elijah Hannan, Technical Director Chimmy Anne Gunn, Sayantee Sahoo Assistant Technical Directors Harrison Beauregard, Properties Master Stephanie Waaser, Master Electrician Kelly Pursley, Assistant Master Electrician Christopher Ross-Ewart, Production Sound Engineer Brittany Bland, Projection Engineer Michael Hsu, Stage Carpenter An-Lin Dauber, Ien DeNio, Tye Hunt Fitzgerald, Barbaro Guzman, Miranda Rose Hall, Majkin Holmquist, Frederick Kennedy, Sarah B. Mantell, Cole McCarty, Genne Murphy, Sarah Nietfield, Josh Wilder, Run Crew

ADMINISTRATION Al Heartley, House Manager

For New Domestic Architecture Christopher Ross-Ewart, Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer Bianca A. Hooi, Assistant Stage Manager

for Some Bodies Travel Michael Costagliola, Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer Lynda A.H. Paul, Vocal Consultant Shelby North, Assistant Stage Manager

For Amy and the Orphans Christopher Ross-Ewart, Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer Stella Baker, Assistant to Jamie Brewer Sarah Thompson, Assistant Stage Manager

Special Thanks Dr. Gerald D. Alexander, DDS; City Theatrical; Lynn Hargrow; Jason Maagenia; Yagil Eliraz; Aole Miller Carlotta Festival of New Plays May 6–14, 2016 Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel Street Cover photos © Joan Marcus.

The taking of photographs or the use of recording devices of any kind in the theatre without the written permission of the management is prohibited.

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Yale School of Drama Staff James Bundy, Dean Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean Joan Channick, Associate Dean

Artistic Artistic Management Jennifer Kiger, Associate Artistic Director Director of New Play Programs James Mountcastle, Production Stage Manager Amy Boratko, Literary Manager Kay Perdue Meadows, Artistic Associate Rachel Carpman, Literary Associate Lindsay King, Teresa Mensz, Library Services Josie Brown, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director Laurie Coppola, Senior Administrative Assistant for the Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Playwriting, and Stage Management Departments Mary Volk, Senior Administrative Assistant for the Design, Sound Design, and Projection Departments

PRODUCTION Production Management Bronislaw J. Sammler, Head of Production Jonathan Reed, Production Manager C. Nikki Mills, Associate Head of Production and Student Labor Supervisor Grace O’Brien, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Production and Theater Safety and Occupational Health Departments Scenery Neil Mulligan, Matt Welander, Technical Directors Alan Hendrickson, Electro Mechanical Laboratory Supervisor Eric Sparks, Shop Foreman Matt Gaffney, Ryan Gardner, Sharon Reinhart, Master Shop Carpenters Alex McNamara, Shop Carpenter Bryanna Kim, Jill Chandler Salisbury, Assistants to the Technical Director Painting Ru-Jun Wang, Scenic Charge Lia Akkerhuis, Nathan Jasunas, Assistant Scenic Artists Daniel Cogan, Assistant to the Painting Supervisor Properties Jennifer McClure, Properties Master David P. Schrader, Properties Craftsperson Ted Griffith, Ashley Flowers, Properties Assistants Bill Batschelet, Properties Stock Manager

Costumes Tom McAlister, Costume Shop Manager Robin Hirsch, Associate Costume Shop Manager Clarissa Wylie Youngberg, Mary Zihal, Senior Drapers Deborah Bloch, Harry Johnson, Senior First Hands Linda Kelley-Dodd, Costume Project Coordinator Denise O’Brien, Wig and Hair Design Barbara Bodine, Company Hairdresser Elizabeth Beale, Costume Stock Manager Jamie Farkas, Assistant to the Costume Shop Manager

Finance and Human Resources Katherine D. BurgueĂąo, Director of Finance and Human Resources Erin Ethier, Business Manager Janna J. Ellis, Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium Monica Avila, Chris Fuller, Preston Mock, Business Office Specialists Shainn Reaves, Senior Administrative Assistant to Business Office, Digital Technology, Operations, and Tessitura

Electrics Donald W. Titus, Lighting Supervisor Brian Quiricone, Linda-Cristal Young, Senior Head Electricians

Marketing, Communications, and Audience Services Daniel Cress, Director of Marketing Steven Padla, Director of Communications Caitlin Griffin, Senior Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Libby Peterson, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Kathy Li, Marketing and Communications Assistant T. Charles Erickson, Production Photographer Laura Kirk, Director of Audience Services Shane Quinn, Assistant Director of Audience Services Tracy Baldini, Subscriptions Coordinator Roger-Paul Snell, Audience Services Assistant Alexandra Cadena, Jordan Graf, Anthony Jasper, Katie Metcalf, Kenneth Murray, Kyra Riley, Aaron Wegner, Box Office Assistants

Sound Mike Backhaus, Sound Supervisor Stephanie Smith, Staff Sound Engineer Ien DeNio, Matthew Fischer, Assistants to the Sound Supervisor Projections Erich Bolton, Projection Supervisor Mike Paddock, Head Projection Technician Brittany Bland, Assistant to the Projection Supervisor Stage Operations Janet Cunningham, Stage Carpenter Kate Begley Baker, Head Properties Runner Elizabeth Bolster, Wardrobe Supervisor Jacob Riley, FOH Mix Engineer Mark Bailey, Light Board Programmer

ADMINISTRATION General Management Emika Abe, Sooyoung Hwang, Associate Managing Directors Emily Reeder, Assistant Managing Director Emalie Mayo, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Managing Director Rachel Shuey, Sylvia Xiaomeng Zhang, Management Assistants Flo Low, Company Manager Trent Anderson, Assistant Company Manager Development and Alumni Affairs Deborah S. Berman, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs Janice Muirhead, Senior Associate Director of Development Susan C. Clark, Development and Alumni Affairs Officer Joanna Romberg, Associate Director of Development Alice Kenney, Jennifer Schmidt, Development Associates Sam Linden, Development Assistant Jennifer E. Alzona, Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Marketing & Communications

Operations Diane Galt, Director of Facility Operations Nadir Balan, Interim Operations Associate Jennifer Draughn, Arts and Graduate Studies Superintendent Vondeen Ricks, Sherry Stanley, Team Leaders Michael Humbert, Facility Steward Lucille Bochert, Tylon Frost, Kathy Langston, Warren Lyde, Patrick Martin, Mark Roy, Custodians Digital Technology Chris Kilbourne, Director of Digital Technology Daryl Brereton, Associate Director of Digital Technology Kathleen Martin, Web Services Associate Don Harvey, Ron Rode, Ben Silvert, Database Application Consultants Theater Safety and Occupational Health William J. Reynolds, Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health Jacob Thompson, Security Officer Ed Jooss, Audience Safety Officer Kevin Delaney, John Marquez, Customer Service and Safety Officers

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photograph by David Ottenstein

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